Our Coaching and Training Team
Dr. Buddhi Lokuge
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Buddhi is the co-founder of CalmLion and an addiction medicine specialist doctor and a certified addiction recovery coach. He is a dual Addiction Medicine and Public Health Medicine Specialist with the Royal Australian College of Physicians, and a certified recovery coach with the International Coaches Register.
Buddhi is a Staff Specialist in Addiction Medicine in Newcastle, Australia and is a lecturer and researcher at the University of Newcastle. He is Chief investigator on trials studying the neurocircuitry of addiction, habit formation and change. He is Clinical and Harm Reduction advisor to U-ACT, an international non-profit involved in addiction recovery and rehabilitation work across the globe including in South Africa, Australia, the US, Singapore and the UK.
Buddhi's coaching and facilitation draws on his lived experience, training in medicine, trauma and attachment repair, as well as a body of alternative treatment modalities including mahamudara meditation, use of plant medicines, and family constellations healing. Buddhi has trained with Dan P. Brown of Harvard in the Treatment of Complex Trauma, and is training with Integrative Psychology and Dan co-author David Elliot in adult attachment repair. He has certified in Psychedelic Assisted Therapy (PAT) with the Mind Medicine Institute.
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Buddhi has a Medical Degree from the University of Sydney, a Masters of Public Health from Harvard University and has a PhD from the Australian National University. He has worked as a volunteer in Afghanistan, Africa and India with Medicins Sans Frontier (MSF)/ Doctors Without Borders, and was Manager of Advocacy (Access Campaign) for Doctors Without Borders/USA in New York (2007-2009).
Buddhi is co-founder of the non-profit Mentoring by Adventure, supporing life skills development for Aboriginal children in out of home care. He established the East Arnhem Scabies control program for Miwath Health and One Disease and from this experienced authored “A Doctors Dream” published by Allen & Unwin. Buddhi is co-creator of the ABC TV show BlackAs. After work he can be found with his kids, his guitar or doing (mostly average) standup comedy in Newcastle.
David Collins
David Collins is co-founder of Calm Lion and developer of the Ubuntu Academy of Coaching Training (U-ACT) Recovery Coaching methodology. He is a Certified Professional Co-Active Coach (Coaches Training Institute, USA), an internationally accredited Master Coach (IMCSA - Institute of Management Consulting & Master Coaches South Africa). As a result of the stigma, judgments, shaming and harm he saw when seeking help for his own addictions, in 2001 David established the Foundation Clinic for addiction recovery in Johannesburg, and the U-ACT school of recovery coaches.
Close to a thousand coaches have undertaken U-ACT professional recovery training throughout the world including in South Africa, US, UK, Singapore and Australia. David is a National Director and a certified leader of the Mankind Project in South Africa, supporting men's personal growth and transformation. David holds a Certificate in Drugs, Drug Use, Drug Policy & Health from the University of Geneva, is a member of the International Coaching Federation and is the National Director of the Mankind Project in South Africa. He is a specialist coach, facilitator and consultant with an extensive background in the addiction and financial sector.
Emma de Crespigny​
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Emma is a Certified Professional Recovery Coach (CPRC) and facilitator with Calm Lion and U-ACT. She is TRE® Certified, which is an innovative series of exercises that assist the body in releasing deep muscular patterns of stress, tension and trauma. and is busy with her qualification in Transactional Analysis.
Emma has a BA in Philosophy from Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, USA and a Masters in History of Design from Cooper Hewitt Design Museum, New York City. She is a furniture designer and manufacturer.
Attie Van Buuren
A highly experienced coach with more than 500 hours of coaching clients behind him. He is passionate about helping others identify and implement their own solutions by harnessing a greater power. His interactive skills and ability to channel individual crisis into pragmatic, but profoundly meaningful action makes him uniquely equipped to help clients integrate all facets of their lives into a coherent, purpose-driven direction. His background in the corporate world – which included stints in the sub-continent – also gives him specialized knowledge of cultural diversity within the coaching context and enables him to connect quickly with students and clients on a wide spectrum of levels.
He spent several years as an in- house coach at the Foundation Clinic and is still intensely involved in its activities, both as a group facilitator and trainer. Married with three children, he remains deeply committed to the foundation, its values and ideals due to his belief that the cure to addiction lies not in the external trappings of our lives, but within us. “Each individual is his or her own solution. Clean the cup inside and it will overflow with joy into everything outside it.”